Instrumental Hour

Instrumental Hour

One hour of instrumental music, including a couple of rare renditions.

Though Carnatic music is essentially vocal, it also has a rich range of instruments – veena, flute, violin, nagaswaram, and gottuvadyam or chitraveena, and recently, mandolin, saxophone, clarinet, guitar and keyboard. The veena has always had the pre-eminent position among instruments, as the one that gives the effect closest to that of the voice. The nagaswaram has also greatly influenced vocal musicians in the last half century or so, with greats such as T N Rajarathnam Pillai having a lasting effect on the music of stalwarts such as G N Balasubramaniam. This programme presents Carnatic music played on instruments, and includes renditions on the violin, veena, flute and saxophone.